BSB Oulton Park: Kiyonari aims to resurrect title bid

Ryuichi Kiyonari could do with a dramatic turnaround in fortunes at the MCE British Superbike Bank Holiday Monday meeting at Oulton Park.

The triple BSB champion is languishing in tenth position in the championship - four places below the last Showdown place - following a lacklustre start to his quest to lift a record fourth title.

The Samsung Honda rider's best result so far is a fourth place in race two in the opening round at Brands Hatch and he currently sits on 21 points – a massive 70 points behind championship leader Shane 'Shakey' Byrne, who is also chasing a fourth BSB crown in 2013.

Oulton is a circuit that has traditionally played to Japanese ace Kiyonari's strengths in the past and 'Kiyo' has vowed to 'try very hard' to resurrect an already faltering championship challenge.

“Thruxton was difficult for me, but I hope that at Oulton Park it can be different,” he said.

“I like the circuit and have had some good races there before and we did some good work at the test so I hope that we can have better races this weekend.

“I will try very hard and we will work to try and improve all weekend because we need to have good results at Oulton Park.”

By contrast, Kiyonari's team-mate Alex Lowes has yet to finish off the podium in the first four races on the CBR1000RR Fireblade.

Samsung Honda team manager, Havier Beltran, is hopeful both riders will be in the rostrum shake-up at the Cheshire circuit on Monday.

“After a few weeks off since the last round at Thruxton the Samsung Honda team has had time to regroup and with the test at Knockhill, we head to Oulton Park feeling ready to go,” said Beltran.

“Alex has had a consistent run of podium finishes so far and will obviously be looking to build on that this weekend, whilst we are hoping that the recent test will help Kiyo to progress at a circuit that has previously been very good to him.”